Nirvana

[Monica Bhide]

I was in DC today trying to be productive Well I happened in on a brand new Indian restaurant called Nirvana. I am doing a class for eGCI called Beginners Guide to regional Indian cooking and when I learnt that this place does regional menus (from the sweet general manager), I had to try it

I was not dissappointed. Today their buffet was featuring dishes from Gujarat -- a western Indian state. The pooris (fried Indian breads) were prefect -- not oily or soggy. The menu was all vegetarian -- the eggpant with potatoes and the spicy and sweet lentil curry -- yum!

They are located on 1810 K street NW

[babka]

Monica--

Do they have a buffet at dinner too? Do you have any memory of their prices? I'm trying to find a good place for 8 friends to meet before a concert tomorrow night, and that sounds perfect...

thanks!

[Monica Bhide]

No i think the buffet is for lunch and was 9.95 per person for a LOT of food. Their dinner menu seems to be priced okay -- 9 bucks an entree --let me know how you like the food. I would like to go again to try out things from the menu.

The owner did let me know that for Valentine's day they are doing a special on the different regions of India

[frustrated mom]

Monica -

Do you know their phone number. I tried googling them with no results. I want to make sure they are open for Saturday lunch.

[Malawry]

I wonder if they'll ever do Keralan food.

[Monica Bhide]

Yup -- 1 202 223 5043

[Monica Bhide]

They are still not opening on weekends.. I thnk that will happen in a few weeks

[Monica Bhide]

Washington Post has a review of this place in today's Food section..

[JennyUptown]

Ah, bummer! It's veg only. Although I like things like samosas and most dishes with paneer, I don't really desire to have a completely vegetarian meal. I know others will disagree though.

[Monica Bhide]

It is worth a shot. I quite liked the vegetarian choices they had -- not the regular stuff -- but a lot of authentic dishes..

[babka]

Thanks so much!

We had a lovely time, with a couple of caveats, which we chalked up to the "Open for only Three Weeks!" syndrome, and a strong guess that the limited options of lunch make it their strongest point for now.

It's very kind, warm, family-friendly place--

in other words, when I asked our waiter whether we might see some food sometime, as it had been half an hour since we'd ordered, and we had to leave for a show in another 40 minutes, he said he didn't know but he'd go check with his mother, who was cooking it.

The appetizer platter was marvelous, particularly the fried banana chile something that was oh--my. I carefully cut it into five pieces and, after the first person bit & moaned, they were _snarfed_. Never saw a plate empty so fast.

Half of the entrees were fantastic. There was something we'd never seen before, an eggplant, potato, and yellow pepper covered with a sticky-but-not-sweet sesame something paste--(Monica? Do you have any idea what this is or where it might be from??? We were running very, very late by the time we left and couldn't ask--but oh--there was a fight over the last smidgeon of seed paste). The red curry paneer was almost as good--held back only because the sesame was so sublime, and the other two dishes would have been marvelous if they hadn't gone through a flood of salt before exiting the kitchen--see above syndrome for our assumed explanation.

also a fantastic mango lassi and a very interesting salty lassi-which will be very, very good on the fourth time I try it--and a liquor license arriving tomorrow.

edited to add:

I should have emphasized the friendliness more--my friends were running 10 minutes late, and everybody at the restaurant was exceedingly kind and friendly--there aren't many places in this town where I'm happy sitting alone for 10 minutes without a book, paper, or drink, but I was quite delighted to just sit and lap up the atmosphere.

and my friend had a lovely time getting into a cab and asking him to please take her to nirvana....

Edited February 12, 2004 by babka (log)

[westofrome]

Has anyone else tried Nirvana? I've been there three times (as a vegetarian I'm thrilled to have an all-veggie place downtown) and thought it was pretty teriffic. I've only been for dinner, but everything I've tried has ranged from good to great, and the menu has some unique dishes I've not seen at other Indian restaurants. Some posts I've seen mentioned shaky service, but everything was fine this past week when I went.

My main disappointment is that they've been out of the banana pepper with coconut appetizer when I've gone. Hopefully this'll show up soon.

I've been trying to get the word out since they haven't been very busy the times I've went (granted, maybe they're packed at lunch.)

[Melani]

Went to Nirvana on Friday night. The food was great but the place was dead--obviously suffering from it's location in an area that gets absolutely no foot traffic on the weekends. But I encourage everyone to venture down there and check it out. We especially enjoyed the Undhio curry--an unusual mix of spicy vegetables and sweetness from bananas. The owner/cook came to our table to chat with us and answer our questions about the menu, then checked in with us again at the end of the meal. Kind of strange for a restaurant in this price range, but there was also a woman there who was sort of a sommelier. She stopped by to see how I liked my glass of pinot noir. Then she came to our table at the end of the meal to offer us a sample of a French dessert wine (semillion?). She asked for our advice on how to market it to the customers.